Manuel Wilhelm

Manuel Wilhelm (born 15 December 1980 in Ludwigsburg) is a German international rugby union player, playing for the RG Heidelberg in the Rugby-Bundesliga and the German national rugby union team.

Manuel Wilhelm plays rugby since 1986, first for RG Heidelberg, later he spent one season with league rival SC Neuenheim, before he went back to his club of origin RG Heidelberg. After his military service Wilhelm played one season for CAU Valencia in the first Spanish division, before returning to RG Heidelberg. He won two German championships (15s) with the later, in 2006 and 2007, five 7s-championships in 1998, 1999, 2003, 2005, 2009 and the German cup in 2004. He also plays beach rugby for The Romantics B.R.F.C..

He was first called up for the German national team in 2000 but could not play because of injury and did not make his debut for Germany until 2003, in a game against Sweden.

He is the founder of Germany's biggest rugby website, TotalRugby.de.

In 2012, Wilhelm proposed a reform of the German league system which was approved at the Deutsche Rugby Tag, the annual general meeting of the DRV, in mid-July 2012. The new system will see the number of clubs in the Bundesliga increased from ten to 24, the league divided into four regional divisions of six clubs each and the finals series expanded from four to eight teams.

Wilhelm's father is from Ghana while his mother is German.

Honours

Club German rugby union championship Champions: 2006, 2007 Runners up: 1999, 2001, 2002, 2008 German rugby union cup Winners: 2004

National team European Nations Cup - Division 2 Champions: 2008

Stats Manuel Wilhelm's personal statistics in club and international rugby:

Club Year Club Division Games Tries Con Pen DG Place 2007-08 RG Heidelberg Rugby-Bundesliga 13 2 0 0 0 2nd — Runners-up 2008-09 13 4 0 0 0 5th 2009-10 14 5 0 0 0 2nd — Semi-finals 2010-11 7 0 0 0 0 4th — Semi-finals 2011-12 12 0 0 0 0 6th 2012-13 4th — Semi finals 2013-14 As of 4 December 2013

National team

European Nations Cup

Friendlies & other competitions Year Team Competition Games Points 2008 Germany Friendly 1 0 2009 1 0 As of 4 December 2013